Stalin: A Biography

by Robert Service

  16. Ibid., p. 12.

  17. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, pp. 58–9.

  18. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, pp. 25 and 27. Zhordania had earlier turned down the invitation from Ilya Chavchavadze to edit Iveria: he wanted complete political autonomy.

  19. Ibid., pp. 29–30.

  20. Istoricheskie mesta Tbilisi, p. 25.

  21. Iveria, no. 23 (1895).

  22. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, p. 31.

  23. deda ena (ed. Y. Gogebashvili: 1912 edition).

  24. I. Stalin, Stikhi, p. 3. Several biographies of Stalin wrongly assume that the dedicatee was Giorgi Eristava, the poet exiled to the Polish provinces of the Russian Empire in 1832.

  25. M. Kun cites archives indicating that the Eristavi poem was recalled as ‘revolutionary’ in content by a fellow seminarist: see Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 77.

  26. A more plausible version of this story was that the seminarists borrowed the books in the normal fashion for a fee and took it in turns to copy them out by hand: M. Chiaureli’s memoir of a conversation with Stalin in A Fadeer (ed.), Vstrechi s tovarishchem Stalinym, pp. 156–7.

  27. Stalin: v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov i dokumentov epokhi, p. 24.

  28. J. Iremaschwili, Stalin und die Tragödie Georgiens, p. 20.

  29. ‘I. V. Stalin o “Kratkom kurse po istorii VKP(b)”. Stenogramma vystupleniya no soveshchanii propagandistov Moskvy i Leningrada’, Istoricheskii arkhiv, no. 5 (1994), p. 12.

  30. See the results in RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, dd. 48 and 665.

  31. Y. Gogebashvili, deda ena (1912). The State House-Museum of I. V. Stalin in Gori also holds the 1916 edition in Hall I.

  32. Pupils’ records from the Tiflis Seminary for 1898–9: RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 53, p. 1.

  33. Stalin’s account in 1931, reproduced in Istoricheskie mesta Tbilisi, p. 29.

  5. Marxist Militant

  1. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin: biografiya (2nd edn), p. 10. Since such an occupation was hardly to Stalin’s credit as a Marxist militant it is probably true.

  2. Hall I, GDMS.

  3. See the magnetic tape and various written records in Hall II, GDMS.

  4. Istoricheskie mesta Tbilisi. Putevoditel’ po mestam, svyazannym s zhizn’yu i deyatel’nost’yu I. V. Stalina, pp. 30–1.

  5. Ibid., p. 32.

  6. Lado Ketskhoveli: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov, pp. 174–5.

  7. J. Iremaschwili, Stalin und die Tragödie Georgiens, p. 24.

  8. A. Gio, Zhizn’ podpol’nika, p. 25 (writing about the group led by Stalin’s acquaintance Silva Dzhibladze).

  9. Ibid., p. 54.

  10. J. Davrichewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, p. 111.

  11. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, pp. 29–30.

  12. J. Iremaschwili, Stalin und die Tragödie Georgiens, p. 25.

  13. Ibid.

  14. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, pp. 66–7.

  15. See E. Smith, The Young Stalin, p. 78.

  16. See below, pp. 72–4.

  17. See the forthcoming history of Georgian Marxism by Stephen Jones, chapter 4. A succinct summary of N. Zhordaniya’s ideas appeared in his ‘Nat-sional’nyi vopros’, Bor’ba, no. 2 (1914), pp. 26–31.

  18. Stalin’s account at a Kremlin meeting of 28 December 1945, recorded by V. D. Mochalov: Slovo tovarishchu Stalinu, p. 461.

  19. A. Yenukidze, ‘Istoriya organizatsiya i raboty nelegal’nykh tipografii R.S.D.R.P. (bol’shevikov) na Kavkaze za vremya ot 1900 po 1906 g.’ in Tekhnika bol’shevistskogo podpol’ya, p. 20.

  20. L. B. Krasin, ‘Bol’shevistskaya partiinaya tekhnika’ in ibid., p. 10.

  21. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 193; A. S. Yenukidze, ‘Istoriya organizatsii i raboty nelegal’nykh tipografii R.S.R.P. (bol’shevikov) na Kavkaze’, pp. 20–5; N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, p. 35.

  22. S. T. Arkhomed, Rabochee dvizhenie i sotsial-demokratiya na Kavkaze, pp. 81–4.

  23. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sostial-demokrata, pp. 66–7.

  24. S. T. Arkhomed, Rabochee dvizhenie i sotsial-demokratiya na Kavkaze, pp. 81–4.

  25. Stalin i Khasim (1901–1902 gg.). The importance of this account was established by M. Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, pp. 49–50. My thanks to George Hewitt for advice on Abkhazian nomenclature and on the peasant’s probable nationality.

  26. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, pp. 11–31.

  27. See Stalin’s account at a Kremlin meeting of 28 December 1945, recorded by V. D. Mochalov: Slovo tovarishchu Stalinu, p. 461.

  28. Ibid., p. 462.

  29. A. Yenukidze, ‘Istoriya organizatsiya i raboty nelegal’nykh tipografii’, p. 28.

  30. Ibid.

  31. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, p. 30.

  32. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, pp. 7 and 9.

  33. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, pp. 17–20. I am grateful to Zakro Megreleshvili for his help in translating this important memoir for me.

  34. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 70.

  35. S. Alliluev, Proidënnyi put’, p. 109.

  36. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 68.

  37. Ibid., p. 66.

  38. Ibid., p. 65.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Ibid., p. 66.

  41. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, p. 17.

  42. Ibid., p. 18.

  43. Ibid., p. 20; Stalin’s account as given to a confidential meeting of leading official propagandists on 28 December 1945: see V. D. Mochalov’s notes in Slovo tovarishchu Stalinu, p. 463.

  44. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, p. x: comment by the anonymous editorial group of the Institute of Marx–Engels–Lenin.

  45. S. Kavtaradze, Tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, pp. 17–20.

  46. Ibid., p. 18.

  47. Ibid.

  6. The Party and the Caucasus

  1. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, p. 24.

  2. Revolyutsiya 1905 goda v Zakavkaz’i, pp. 70–1.

  3. Ibid., p. 89.

  4. S. Vereshchak, ‘Stalin v tyur’me’, part 2, Dni, 24 January 1928.

  5. Perepiska V.I. Lenina i rukovodimykh im uchrezhdenii RSDRP s mestnymi partiinymi organizatsiyami, 1905–1907, vol. 2, part 1, p. 294.

  6. Pravda, 24 April 1920. Whether this had really been Stalin’s initial reaction to Lenin is a matter of speculation, for in describing Lenin positively in such terms he was implicitly recommending himself as well as Lenin to the audience in April 1920. Nevertheless it is not an improbable reaction.

  7. B. Gorev, ‘Za kulisami pervoi revolyutsii’, pp. 16–17; I. V. Stalin, Pravda, 24 April 1920.

  8. Editorial note by R. Markova, Chetvërtyi (ob”edinitel’nyi) s”ezd RSDRP (1949 edition), p. 34.

  9. M. Stugart in his readers’ queries column, Dagens Nyheter, 22 March 2004.

  10. Chetvërtyi s”ezd, p. 116.

  11. Ibid., p. 224.

  12. Ibid., p. 311.

  13. Ibid., pp. 78–9, 81 and 116.

  14. Ibid., pp. 78–9 and 224.

  15. J. Davrichewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, p. 228.

  16. V. Alliluev, Khronika odnoi sem’i, p. 108.

  17. See the account by M. Kun, Stalin. An Unknown Portrait, pp. 342–3.

  18. See below, pp. 92–4.

  19. See below, pp. 75–6.

  20. W. J. Fishman, East End 1888, pp. 131–72

  21. Ye. Yemel’yanov in Stalin. K shestidesyatiyu so dnya rozhdeniya, p. 197.

  22. See K. Weller, ‘Don’t Be a Soldier!’, p. 85.

  23. Daily Express, 5 January 1950.

  24. Pyatyi (londonskii) s”ezd RSDRP, p. 121.

  25. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, p. 53.

  7. On the Run

  1. R. G. Suny, ‘A Journeyman for the Revolution’, pp. 373–4.

  2. Diskussionnyi Listok. Prilozhenie k Tsentral’nomu Organu ‘Sotsial-
demokrat’ (Paris), 24 May/7 June 1910, pp. 26–7. He had probably written this before being arrested. A rejoinder by Noe Zhordania was included in the same issue, pp. 28–30.

  3. Ibid., pp. 26–8.

  4. Krasnyi arkhiv, no. 2 (1941), pp. 14 and 17–18.

  5. A. Allilueva, Vospominaniya, p. 109.

  6. Pyatyi (londonskii) s”ezd RSDRP, p. 87.

  7. J. Iremaschwili, Stalin und die Tragödie Georgiens, p. 40.

  8. Ibid., p. 39.

  9. Ibid. David Machavariani, one of Joseph Dzhughashvili’s school friends, corroborated — after the Second World War — the deep effects of his wife’s death: J. Davrishewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, p. 35.

  10. See above, chapter 1.

  11. J. Iremaschwili, Stalin und die Tragödie Georgiens, p. 39.

  12. S. Kavtaradze, tsareulis purtsebli, vol. 1, p. 99.

  13. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, pp. 314–15.

  14. RGASPI, f. 71, op. 10, d. 275. See M. Kun, Stalin. An Unknown Portrait, p. 18 for a full account.

  15. S. Talakvadze, K istorii Kommunisticheskoi partii Gruzii, p. 118.

  16. R. Brackman, The Secret File, pp. 133–5, 186–93 and 281–9.

  17. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 67.

  18. A. Gio, Zhizn’ podpol’nika, p. 67.

  19. Ibid., p. 69.

  20. Ibid., p. 70.

  21. Ibid., pp. 70 and 72.

  22. Ibid., p. 73.

  23. J. Davrichewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, pp. 174 and 199. Stalin also acknowledged to Kandide Charkviani that ‘exes’ were carried out by his party group: see p. 14 of his unpublished memoirs.

  24. Davrichewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, pp. 175–6 and 188–9.

  25. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 13, p. 222: interview with Emile Ludwig.

  26. See above, pp. 36–7.

  27. RGASPI, f. 332, op. 1, ed.kh. 53. This source was first discussed by M. Kun in Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, pp. 77–9.

  28. See B. Nikolaevskii, ‘K istorii “Bol’shevistskogo Tsentra”’, vol. 1, p. 68: Nikolaevskii Papers, St Antony’s College Library, Oxford.

  29. R. Arsenidze, Novyi zhurnal, no. 72 (1963), p. 232; Yu. Martov, Vperë d, no. 51, 31 March 1918; Pravda, 1 April 1918.

  30. See the memoir by Semën Vereshchak, ‘Stalin v tyur’me’.

  31. K. S. [I. V. Stalin], ‘Pis’mo s Kavkaza’, Diskussionnyi listok. Prilozhenie k Tsentral’nomu Organu ‘Sotsial-demokrat’, no. 2, 24 May/7 June 1910, pp. 26–7.

  32. An [N. Zhordaniya], ‘Po povodu, Pis’ma s Kavkaza’, ibid., p. 28.

  33. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 2, pp. 50–1.

  34. The significance of this linguistic switch was first noted by A. Rieber, ‘Stalin, Man of the Borderlands’, p. 1676.

  35. S. Vereshchak, ‘Stalin v tyur’me’.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ibid.

  39. Ibid.

  40. See M. Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 98.

  41. Ibid., pp. 115–17.

  42. See the account of interviews conducted by L. Vasil’eva, Deti Kremlya, pp. 168–9 and 176.

  8. At the Centre of the Party

  1. See above, pp. 61 and 66.

  2. N. Zhordaniya, Moya zhizn’, p. 53.

  3. G. Uratadze, Vospominaniya gruzinskogo sotsial-demokrata, p. 234.

  4. Vserossiiskaya Konferentsiya Ros. Sots.-Dem. Rab. Partii 1912 goda: see the introduction by R. C. Elwood, pp. xx–xxi.

  5. See M. Kun, Stalin: An Unknown Portrait, p. 130.

  6. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 48, p. 53.

  7. Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 197.

  8. deda ena (ed. Y. Gogebashvili: 1912 edn). The poem in question was ‘Morning’.

  9. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 2, p. 219.

  10. He had ceased to show his romantic aspect since leaving the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary: see above, pp. 40–1.

  11. Easily the best work on the transmutation of Stalin’s political and ‘personal’ persona is A. Rieber’s ‘Stalin, Man of the Borderlands’, which highlights the artificial qualities of his self-representation from 1900 — and not just from 1912. My belief, though, is that Stalin after 1912, rather than becoming a sort of Russian, adopted a binational persona which at any given time might give emphasis either to the Russian or to the Georgian aspect.

  12. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 48, p. 162. For the contents of the booklet, see below, pp. 96–100.

  13. S. Vereshchak, ‘Stalin v tyur’me’.

  14. A. S. Allilueva, Vospominaniya, p. 115.

  15. S. Vereshchak, ‘Stalin v tyur’me’.

  16. Stalin related the story to A. E. Golovanov shortly before the 1943 Tehran Conference. Golovanov in turn related it to Felix Chuev: see Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 202.

  17. A. S. Allilueva, Vospominaniya, p. 113.

  18. Ibid., p. 115.

  19. Ibid., p. 116.

  20. V. I. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, vol. 22, pp. 207–9. The article was unpublished at the time.

  21. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 16.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Zastol’nye rechi Stalina, p. 301. He told a similar story to Kandide Charkviani: see his unpublished memoirs, p. 25.

  25. N. Lenin, ‘Zametki publitsista’, p. 9.

  26. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 647, p. 432.

  27. See below, p. 441.

  28. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 647, pp. 432–3.

  29. Ibid., p. 433.

  30. Ibid.

  31. The contents of the booklet are discussed below, pp. 96–100.

  32. F. Samoilov, ‘O Lenine i Staline’: RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 659, p. 1.

  33. Prosveshchenie, nos 3–5 (1913).

  34. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, pp. 368–72: ‘Polozhenie v sotsial-demokraticheskoi fraktsii’. It was published in Pravda on 26 February 1913.

  9. Koba and Bolshevism

  1. Bogdanov developed ideas which, if he had become more widely known, would have given pause to thinkers since the 1960s who have become known as post-modernists. Although he insisted that ‘culture’ is never simply a reflection of economic production relations, he stipulated too that collective insights, indeed insights which reflect the interests of particular social groups, inform and condition what both is and can be thought in society. Bogdanov did not have all the answers. Yet his turn-of-the-century oeuvre was overlooked abroad and suppressed at home, and the neglect of his ideas has delayed the philosophical demise of fashionable postmodernism.

  2. See below, pp. 357–8.

  3. J. Davrichewy, Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, p. 212.

  4. Slovo tovarishchu Stalinu, p. 462: from notes taken by V. D. Mochalov at meeting with Stalin on 28 December 1945.

  5. Even Davrishevi admitted this: Ah! Ce qu’on rigolait bien, p. 212.

  6. See also below, p. 300.

  7. See above, pp. 62–3.

  8. See above, p. 63.

  9. S. Shaumyan, Izbrannye proizvedeniya, vol. 1, p. 267.

  10. I. M. Dubinskii-Mukhadze, Shaumyan, p. 156.

  11. F. D. Kretov, Bor’ba V. I. Lenina za sokhranenie i ukreplenie RSDRP v gody stolypinskoi reaktsii, p. 141.

  12. I. M. Dubinskii-Mukhadze, Shaumyan, p. 156.

  13. ‘Sotsial-demokratiya i natsional’nyi vopros’ in I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, p. 295.

  14. Ibid.

  15. See above, p. 53. I am grateful to Stephen Jones for his help with formulating this paragraph. See also chapter 8 of his forthcoming history of Georgian Marxism before the October Revolution.

  16. ‘Sotsial-demokratiya i natsional’nyi vopros’, Prosveshchenie, no. 5 (1913), p. 27.

  17. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, p. 296.

  18. See above, p. 38.

  19. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniya, vol. 1, p. 307.

  20. Ibid., p. 313.

  21
. Prosveshchenie, no. 5 (1914), p. 27.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid., pp. 32–6.

  24. An [N. Zhordaniya], ‘Natsional’nyi vopros’, Bor’ba (St Petersburg), no. 2, 18 March 1914, p. 31.

  25. Ibid., p. 26.

  26. Sotsial-demokratiya i natsional’nyi vopros’, Sochineniya, vol. 1, p. 340.

  27. Ibid., pp. 340–1.

  28. Ibid.

  29. ‘K natsional’nomu voprosu: evreiskaya burzhuznaya i bundovskaya kul’turno-natsional’naya avtonomiya’, Prosveshchenie, no. 6 (June 1913), pp. 69–76.

  30. Molotov. Poluderzhavnyi vlastelin, p. 258.

  31. See R. Service, Lenin: A Biography, pp. 16–18.

  10. Osip of Siberia

  1. B. I. Ivanov, Vospominaniya rabochego bol’shevika, p. 21.

  2. N. L. Meshcheryakov, Kak my zhili v ssylke, p. 63.

  3. A. V. Baikalov, ‘Turukhanskii “bunt” politicheskikh ssyl’nykh’, p. 56; Atlas aziatskoi Rossii, map 56.

  4. Atlas aziatskoi Rossii, maps 48–51 and 54–5.

  5. Atlas aziatskoi Rossii, map 58a; S. Spandar’yan (Timofei), Stat’i, pis’ma, dokumenty, 1882–1916, p. xxxviii (editorial note).

  6. A. V. Baikalov, ‘Turukhanskii “bunt” politicheskikh ssyl’nykh’, pp. 51–2.

  7. See the account of G. Kennan, Siberia and the Exile System, vol. 1, p. 329 and vol. 2, p. 43.

  8. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 18.

  9. N. L. Meshcheryakov, Kak my zhili v ssylke, p. 75.

  10. A. V. Baikalov, ‘Turukhanskii “bunt” politicheskikh ssyl’nykh’, pp. 53 and 57.

  11. A. V. Baikalov, ‘Turukhanskii “bunt” politicheskikh ssyl’nykh’, p. 53.

  12. Report of 27 April 1914 in ‘K 20-letiyu smerti Ya. M. Sverdlova’, Krasnyi arkhiv, no. 1 (1939), pp. 83–4.

  13. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 19.

  14. Ibid.

  15. See A. Ostrovskii, Kto stoyal za spinoi Stalina?, pp. 400–1.

  16. Bol’shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912–1927, p. 19.

  17. Ya. M. Sverdlov, Izbrannye proizvedeniya, vol. 1, p. 266.

  18. This was made clear, if only implicitly, in S. Spandar’yan (Timofei), Stat’i, pis’ma, dokumenty, p. xxxviii (editorial note). As far as I know, no biography of Stalin has pointed out that Sverdlov’s letter contained a basic misapprehension or that Stalin therefore did not live on the River Kureika north of the Arctic Circle.